Some Actors Dream of Playing a President. But Few Get to Play the President While He's in Office.

Russian hacks got you down? Want to savor the current administration just a little bit longer? Today, five weeks before Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, President Obama's early days as a student at Columbia University are explored in the new biopic Barry, arriving on Netflix.

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Played by up-and-coming Australian actor Devon Terrell, Barry depicts the young Obama as a complicated, brooding young man, constantly questioning his environment and where he fits in as a mixed-race student pursuing an Ivy league education. It also makes the case that he's a guy who enjoys dancing to the B-52s—but really, who doesn't?

Terrell spoke with Esquire.com about the challenge of playing the young Obama. "The man we see today is so refined," he says. "I wanted to see the young person behind that."

ESQ: To play Obama at any point in his life is a tall order. How nervous were you? Did you ever throw up?

Devon Terrell: [Laughs] I didn't throw up but I thought about that. As soon as I got off the call with my agent that I got the role, I did have that moment that it hit me that it is Barack Obama. But then it just became about the work. I was fascinated to learn more about Barack, especially when he called himself Barry.

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You have the look. Was his manner of speaking hard to get down? It's such a defining characteristic.

I stole a little bit of the mannerisms from the Barack we know today. But then reading about him was where I really started finding out what other people thought of him when he was younger: This extremely intelligent young man who didn't show the charm he does today. It was an awkward charm. He was stuck in his mind at that time.

Did you have to learn how to smoke?

Yes, yes. I'm not going to lie, a lot of people started making fun of me because it was so new to me. There was a lot of smoking in the film, so a lot of practice.

He smoked a lot!

I guess everyone knows that he was kind of a chain-smoker when he was younger. I guess it was his mindset, a moment where he could get away from reality and grapple with different things in his life. Hopefully, that's what it shows.

Netflix

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With any biopic, a viewer will wonder if what they're seeing is fiction or what actually happened. At one point, we see Obama sitting in a sand trap at a country club reading a letter he wrote to his father. I mean, Obama sitting in a sand trap reading a letter he wrote his father is an amazing visual.

I guess there are moments in the story, a lot of it is set in truth that he speaks about in his book [Dreams From My Father] and things from a Vanity Fair article. Things like the moment [in the film] where he was punched —that was fiction, but to tell the story about what New York was like at that time and what Barack would have gone through. We tried to understand his world and really give a glimpse into what Barack's life was like at that time.

And for this story, it's about racial identity.

Completely. The story is of Barry, who happens to be about this great man we know today. It really is about him identifying himself and trying to find where he fits in this world, like a lot of kids, like myself, try to today. I remember listening to a podcast where [Obama] says at the age of 50 that he's gotten over a lot of things he was going through as a young man—you realize you are what you are, and you just deal with it.

But it's hard to get that point. Fifty years is a long time.

Going through the film really made me fast-track my thinking and really understand to believe in yourself and keep striving for more.

We have a public perception of Obama, but in the film he's constantly talking about not fitting in. Is that weird to think about him as being like that?

The more research I did, the more I understood that he was completely in conflict in his mind about who he was and what he represented and what his family represented. I always thought that of course when he was younger, everyone thought he was going to be the president. It wasn't like he wrote down, "I'm going to be President of the United States of America."

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Netflix

Has Obama seen Barry?

I don't know if he has. I know people from the White House were at Toronto Film Festival screenings.

What would be the ideal reaction?

As long as he thinks it's an honest portrayal and brings good to the world about people understanding more about themselves... I'm already getting young people talking to me about their identity.

You were supposed to star in Steve McQueen's HBO series, Codes of Conduct, but that got scrapped. What happened?

Unfortunately HBO passed on it. But it was an incredible time in my life to learn from Steve—he's still a dear friend of mine.

Did you have a lot of time to be bummed out?

Not really. I think all together from when the project went down, it was three or four weeks and I got into Barry.

Were there things you took from McQueen that helped out on Barry?

Completely—just honesty within characters. Bringing authenticity and honesty to your character. He made acting so simple.

So who should play Trump in the inevitable coming-of-age biopic?

I have no idea. It depends on what time in their life they want to portray. I'm sure a lot of people will put their hands up.

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